Are EVM’s reliable enough to decide the future of our Government?

Electronic Voting Machines or popularly known as EVM were first implemented in 1989-90 in 16 assembly constituencies. Today, it has not only seen a rise in its usage but also it benefits. EVM’s are electronic devices which at the press of a button cast a vote.

CONSTRUCTION

An EVM consists of two Units – a Control Unit and a Balloting Unit joined by a five-meter cable. The Control Unit is generally managed by a high command officer while the Balloting Unit is placed inside the voting compartment. The voter then comes in to cast his vote out of the various parties(candidates) present and presses the button against his desired candidate.

ADVANTAGES

EVM’s are not connected to the internet and hence have no chance of getting hacked.

It is pretty easy to use the EVM and an illiterate would be able to use it without any hassle.

There is no need to print millions of papers for sake of vote casting. All the information needed is electronically fed into the EVM.

Counting of a number of overall votes and the votes for each candidate is done more rapidly.

The venue of each EVM is not decided two weeks prior to the election, making it nearly impossible to taper with the EVM.

EVM has a capability to store its information for next 10 years.

Bogus voting is reduced as a person can only cast one vote.

DISADVANTAGES

The transportation of EVM’s is an arduous process and is done under a lot of security.

The complete damage of the machine is possible and can be tampered with during transportation itself.

The transfer of information is not done electronically, rather EVM’s are collected in counting booths.

CONCLUSION

To deal with tampering allegations, a paper ballot with the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate will be printed and given to the voter and was introduced in 8 constituencies in 2013. Irrespective of the allegations made by some politicians we can safely assume that an EVM is definitely more beneficial to the voting system-environmentally, economically and educationally.